At present, the silver halide color light-sensitive materials typically resort to subtractive color reproduction using three primary colors. According to this process, the color image is formed by the combination of three dyes derived from a yellow color-forming coupler, a magenta color-forming coupler, and a cyan color-forming coupler.
Of the magenta color-forming couplers, nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds such as 5-pyrazolones are in general use. Such couplers have some disadvantages. Particularly, they are liable to restrain development. An emulsion layer containing such a coupler tends to be less sensitive and to yield a softer gradation than an emulsion layer of the same sensitivity and gradation containing a phenol-type coupler, naphthol-type coupler, and acetanilide-type coupler. Thus it is necessary to increase the sensitivity and gradation of the emulsion layer containing a magenta coupler and to control the amount of the emulsion to be applied in order to establish proper color balance. At a result, the magenta image tends to be inferior in graininess and sharpness to the other color images.
Since the coarse graininess of the magenta image stands out, a magenta image of poor graininess is fatal to the light-sensitive material. The tendency toward low sensitivity is a disadvantage in sensitization treatment which is carried out in reversal color development as noted in Example 1 in order to raise the sensitivity by extending the usual development time of the first development or the black-and-white development. In other words, the tendency toward low sensitivity destroys the color balance of yellow color-forming, magenta color-forming and cyan color-forming in the sensitization treatment. Thus, reversal color light-sensitive materials containing such above-mentioned magenta couplers have poor properties for the sensitization treatment. This is a fatal drawback for reversal color light-sensitive materials, which must often undergo a sensitization treatment.